Cloud based technologies and the future of patient care in an integrated health & life sciences ecosystem

By admin | Date: November 30, 2016 | Blog | 0 Comment(s)

A closer look at the most path-breaking enterprise cloud technologies, which have come about in the recent past, reveals that they are addressing either efficiency issues (time, cost or both), or a need which has been unaddressed or are solving for a latent need. Participants in the clinical trial industry have not been early adopters of technology – as compared to other industries such as BFSI, travel & transportation and many others. This is perhaps to do with the need for multiple levels of regulatory compliance in collecting, analyzing and reporting data related to clinical trials making the perceived risks outweigh immediate benefits.

The advantage of being a laggard has its own silver lining.

We can predict the evolution of technology in healthcare and life sciences industries much better and in fact increase the probability of success through insights obtained from other regulated industries such as BFSI.

Cloud-based technologies are not new to the clinical trials industry. Studies estimate that cloud computing solutions can lead to a 30% increase in speed to trial for clinical work, and can result in considerable cost savings (some estimates suggest savings of up to $400 million until approval). If the market continues to adopt ePRO/EDC technologies, paper studies and subject diaries could cease to exist in 10 years; and focus would shift to new opportunities and/or risk-mitigation via multitude of meaningful information – all accessible conveniently. As the availability, and abundance of data continue to increase, the kaleidoscopic nature of data would prove to be more insightful, when analyzed in combination with other data.

We are heading into a Future of cloud-based information paradigm in an integrated health & life sciences industry, and it has a lot to offer for holistic patient care.

Here are some of the changes which cloud-based technologies are likely to drive in the healthcare and life sciences industries, many of which are already manifesting in other industries.

1. Cloud can enable BYOD in the context of clinical trials, thereby enhancing cost & time efficiency

BYOD policy is under active consideration by policy makers. The FDA requested suggestions on the use of technology in conducting clinical trials and specific questions around the usage of BYOD policies and compatibility between multiple devices. BYOD is a certainty in that the efficiency in collecting data, recruiting and retaining subjects it provides is high. Cloud will enable the usage of BYOD – by making data capture convenient and efficient and also solving for compatibility-related issues between multiple device types.

1. Wearables as an integral part of clinical trials – collecting rich continuous data, rather than discrete data points

Most wearable technologies ranging from MCOT devices and other vital sign monitoring devices are leveraging a ‘smartphone-cloud’ technology to log a continuous stream of data and make it available for analysis. Clinical trial data so far has been discrete, i.e., various data points captured periodically during the course of a trial. The use of wearables enables clinicians to see a continuous stream of data and this has multiple implications:

• Context-rich and continuous data will now be available, which could explain other end-point phenomena observed during trials.
• Clinical research organizations would need to be equipped to deal with unstructured data and make sense of this. They would need to get Big Data skills moving from the well tabulated data which we are all accustomed to.
• A lot of longitudinal studies would be enabled which would have implications on the nature of clinical trials and personalized patient care we would see being offered in the coming few years.

1. The need to run analytics on Big Data will require us to rethink information architecture

It is a given that we would be dealing with a lot more unstructured data in the coming years than ever before. Another fact we need to reconcile is that the breadth and depth of analysis expected to be run on trial data would increase manifold. The combination of complex analysis requests on data which is significantly larger than what we see today implies that our cloud-based information architecture should be equipped to deal with this. Especially running multiple analyses on the cloud (since the data would be contained there), would require a new way to be architected. This is something one should be prepared for.

1. Collaboration and multi-tenancy

Practicing clinicians will vouch for the fact that they expect many collaborative studies to happen in the future. We are witnessing collaborative studies bringing pharma, genomics, and information sciences together. The same data would be used to run multiple analyses towards various end-objectives. Cloud easily enables that. The corollary which goes with this is the issue of multi-tenancy and compliance. Those working on cloud technologies would need to build in enough flexibility and security to enable collaborative studies, while ensuring that access to data for different collaborators is kosher.

1. Can we learn better and reduce risks (and therefore cost & time)?

The fact that the cost of bringing a blockbuster drug to market is increasingly becoming more steep and that is well understood and several attempts are on, to rationalize this cost. However, an area which offers a goldmine to new studies is how those involved in clinical development can learn from existing data, within their own organizations, partners, collaborators, institutions and from the internet. One can anticipate the emergence of collaborators who pool in data from multiple studies to draw from each other’s learning and avoid obvious pitfalls. This would be invaluable to further science, but also reduce risk and cost to bringing good science to market!

While #1 is an example of how cloud technology brings about efficiency, #2 through #3 are emerging needs which need to be addressed by technologists. #4 & #5 are those problem statements where the need is not acutely felt, but addressing these can lead to paradigm shifts in the way clinical trial analysis is done. For technologists and industry participants like myself, there could not be a more exciting time than this!

About MaxisIT:

At MaxisIT, we believe that complex data analysis can produce simple yet powerful insights.

MaxisIT’s Clinical Trial Oversight System (CTOS) is a purpose-built command center designed to manage biopharma and life sciences clinical trials as mission-critical business processes. With its complete AI-enabled analytics platform, the CTOS enables “data-driven digital transformation” from data ingestion, processing, and analysis to in-time clinical intelligence. Its real-time data ingestion, analytics, and visualization empower researchers to identify and address errors as they occur.

The CTOS elevates the value of data, improves efficiency, and empowers clinical stakeholders to seize new opportunities. The platform brings clinical operations and patient data together in a single, central data hub as a single-source-of-truth to help clinical operations, clinical data management, biostatistics, and clinical R&D portfolio management.

A complete self-service, AI-enabled analytics platform, the CTOS unifies trial data from disparate eClinical systems to support study planning, clinical data quality, clinical review, patient safety, clinical operations, CRO performance, risk-assessment, portfolio management, compliance, and submission.

From study setup to data ingestion, clinical trial stakeholders can manage clinical development processes with insight into the study conduct and take proactive actions to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.

MaxisIT’s CTOS helps you maintain an ongoing health-check on your portfolio of clinical trials, using real-time data, analytics, and visualization to drive rigorous analysis of the entire dataset, allowing for proactive trial risk management.

The 50th Annual Meeting of the DIA 2014

By admin | Date: July 31, 2016 | Blog | 0 Comment(s)

Celebrate the Past and Invent the Future with MaxisIT® at the DIA 50th Annual Meeting, June 15-19 2014 in San Diego, CA!

Hosted this year at the San Diego Convention Center, the DIA Annual Meeting celebrates its 50th anniversary, as a community of life science professionals across all disciplines gather to discuss, share and network with the common goal of fostering innovation in the field of clinical research and development.

MaxisIT® (Booth 2121) will be joining a host of industry experts across all disciplines in the field of life science, with the common goal of coming together and sharing their innovations in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and related medical products.  Please join us at the event to network and share ideas which foster innovation in clinical development with other like-minded professionals.

Team experts from MaxisIT® will be on-hand to showcase how we can help your company leverage information and make decisions in support of clinical research and development.  If you are not familiar with MaxisIT®, we are an Integrated Clinical Development Platform Solution, with the ability to improve how pharmaceutical and life science companies successfully plan, integrate, and accomplish their goals.

Our award-winning CTRenaissance Platform (put link to CTA button here) offers the unique ability to single-handedly manage processes such as study design, metadata repository, programming biometrics, analysis & reporting, drug safety and regulatory standards, modeling/simulation and all steps in between.  However, we do not just offer software as a service.  Our highly qualified outsourcing team experts provide collaborative support to CROs of all sizes, consulting companies, technology providers and clinical operations groups.

We all know clinical trials can be a daunting experience, but with a CTRenaissance Platform and a host of other affordable solutions offered by our Integrated Clinical Development Platform, MaxisIT® can help you successfully leverage all of the necessary steps in one easily maneuverable cloud-based system, saving you both time and money.

Since our inception in 2003, we have earned a reputation as being an invaluable asset in the field, and to us that means we have succeeded in creating a quality system for clinical trial oversight.  Thanks to the DIA 2014 Meeting, we can share it with you in person so you too will be able to see that reputation was justifiably earned.

Be sure to stop by and say hello June 15th through the 19th.  Our MaxisIT® team will be at Booth 2121, and we would be more than happy to speak with you one-on-one about your specific needs.  Feel free to come with questions, as our experts will be able to assist you on the spot.

About MaxisIT:

At MaxisIT, we believe that complex data analysis can produce simple yet powerful insights.

MaxisIT’s Clinical Trial Oversight System (CTOS) is a purpose-built command center designed to manage biopharma and life sciences clinical trials as mission-critical business processes. With its complete AI-enabled analytics platform, the CTOS enables “data-driven digital transformation” from data ingestion, processing, and analysis to in-time clinical intelligence. Its real-time data ingestion, analytics, and visualization empower researchers to identify and address errors as they occur.

The CTOS elevates the value of data, improves efficiency, and empowers clinical stakeholders to seize new opportunities. The platform brings clinical operations and patient data together in a single, central data hub as a single-source-of-truth to help clinical operations, clinical data management, biostatistics, and clinical R&D portfolio management.

A complete self-service, AI-enabled analytics platform, the CTOS unifies trial data from disparate eClinical systems to support study planning, clinical data quality, clinical review, patient safety, clinical operations, CRO performance, risk-assessment, portfolio management, compliance, and submission.

From study setup to data ingestion, clinical trial stakeholders can manage clinical development processes with insight into the study conduct and take proactive actions to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.

MaxisIT’s CTOS helps you maintain an ongoing health-check on your portfolio of clinical trials, using real-time data, analytics, and visualization to drive rigorous analysis of the entire dataset, allowing for proactive trial risk management.

Integrated Data Management – A Centralized Approach!

By admin | Date: June 30, 2016 | Blog | 0 Comment(s)

For quite some time CROs have delivered services to sponsors by hosting their clinical trial data, making it unnecessary for a sponsor to build their own clinical database. Such an arrangement relieves a sponsor from the cost as well as regulatory risk of establishing their own new clinical database. But, it can also markedly compromise the sponsors’ ability to respond to evolving events (e.g. safety signals) which stretch timelines and affect compliance requirements. CROs are increasingly making it easier for sponsors to access and analyze their data while the CRO continues to host the database.

The challenge for the sponsor’s clinical data management is that the company rarely works with one CRO, and often relies on one EDC system as one size doesn’t fit all. Whereby in the quest for streamlined operations, efficiency and faster decision-making, the sponsors’ clinical review and data management users may end up doing multiple hops to desired data with a huge lag and have to rely on multiple systems to access the required data.

Data Integration is the only recourse to connect the numerous data silos that are created in the process. Clinical research is a complex world; while the data management process remains hybrid, depending on the type of study, the size of the organization, and the distributed nature & type of the data capture, the complexity of data integration increases. The result is a very long cycle from Data Capture to Analysis and eSubmission.

• How can a life sciences organization with a primary focus on research and a goal of accelerating drug development to market maintain focus on core areas without getting distracted by the overhead of managing multiple CROs and multiple clinical software systems?
• How does a sponsor organization maintain, control, perform faster reviews and gain real-time transparency of the process in an outsourced clinical data during trial and post-lock?
• How does a sponsor organization gain operational efficiency and cost control by leveraging standardized clinical trial metadata across their clinical trial portfolio and further retain control of study design & setup by using reusable configurations?

About MaxisIT:

At MaxisIT, we believe that complex data analysis can produce simple yet powerful insights.

MaxisIT’s Clinical Trial Oversight System (CTOS) is a purpose-built command center designed to manage biopharma and life sciences clinical trials as mission-critical business processes. With its complete AI-enabled analytics platform, the CTOS enables “data-driven digital transformation” from data ingestion, processing, and analysis to in-time clinical intelligence. Its real-time data ingestion, analytics, and visualization empower researchers to identify and address errors as they occur.

The CTOS elevates the value of data, improves efficiency, and empowers clinical stakeholders to seize new opportunities. The platform brings clinical operations and patient data together in a single, central data hub as a single-source-of-truth to help clinical operations, clinical data management, biostatistics, and clinical R&D portfolio management.

A complete self-service, AI-enabled analytics platform, the CTOS unifies trial data from disparate eClinical systems to support study planning, clinical data quality, clinical review, patient safety, clinical operations, CRO performance, risk-assessment, portfolio management, compliance, and submission.

From study setup to data ingestion, clinical trial stakeholders can manage clinical development processes with insight into the study conduct and take proactive actions to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.

MaxisIT’s CTOS helps you maintain an ongoing health-check on your portfolio of clinical trials, using real-time data, analytics, and visualization to drive rigorous analysis of the entire dataset, allowing for proactive trial risk management.